Faced with draconian cuts in state funding, community colleges across Los Angeles are preparing to turn away as many as 15,000 students.

And that’s only under a best-case scenario – if California voters opt for further tax increases.

Without support at the ballot box to help plug a $25.4 billion state budget shortfall, the Los Angeles Community College District could lose up to 17 percent of its funding, or $83million, administrators say.

As a result, the district may be forced to jettison classes by limiting programs such as nursing, film and culinary arts to one of nine community colleges across the region, which will lengthen commutes for students.

“I think we would have to find a way to reframe the services we provide students,” said LACCD Chancellor Daniel LaVista. “At some point, we have to ask, where do we draw the line?”

The budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week to guide California out of the red shook ivory towers across the state.

The plan to close the $25.4 budget gap calls for $12.5 billion in spending cuts, and $12.5 billion in increased revenue through a voter-approved extension of temporary taxes.

If approved by the Legislature, funding for the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges would be reduced by $1.4 billion.

That would mean a $500 million loss to both the UC and Cal State systems, while community colleges would lose $400million and increase fees to $36 per unit.

The cuts to two-year and four-year schools could result in higher tuition, staff layoffs, reduced services, larger classes and limits on the number of students.

CSU, which recently approved a 15 percent tuition increase, was prepared to boost enrollment by 30,000 students this spring after two years of cuts.

But Brown’s budget placed enrollment reductions back on the table. On Jan. 25, CSU presidents will gather to discuss limits on students.

Meanwhile, California State University, Northridge, officials said it’s too soon to tell how the proposed cut to CSU would affect the university. During the last school year, CSUN lost more than $40million in state funding, of which $25 million was restored in 2010-11.

Administrators said they would look at ways to cut costs. While whittling enrollment has led to fewer course offerings, it has also meant fewer part-time faculty members.

“Bottom line is we are finishing this current year trying to assure access and classes for our students,” said Tom McCarron, chief financial officer for CSUN. “As soon as we get more details for fiscal 2012 … we will make our plans towards what we need to do to adjust to that reality.”

While CSU officials were unsure exactly how fewer dollars would affect their students, community colleges – which face turning away 350,000 students at 112 campuses across California – wasted no time in streamlining budgets.

Early this week, LACCD trustees discussed a 6.8 percent reduction to its $498 million budget. For the nation’s largest community college district, with 265,000 students, that means a loss of $33.8 million.

If voters don’t approve a proposed five-year tax extension, it could mean a loss of up to $50million more, LaVista said, forcing the district to “regionalize” programs such as nursing to certain schools.

While the number of classes is reduced – with more students denied access when they fill up – community colleges expect a wave of new students who are unable to enroll in four-year schools.

Across the San Fernando Valley this week, administrators at Pierce, Los Angeles Valley and Los Angeles Mission colleges immediately planned to trim budgets by between 5 percent and 7 percent.

Priority would go to safeguard classes for transfer students, work prep courses such as nursing and basic skills, they said.

At Pierce College in Woodland Hills, administrators pondered an immediate 5 percent reduction, or $5 million, and turning away more than 1,000 students.

In addition, the summer session, already reduced by half since 2009, may incur another 50 percent cut in classes, with the winter session eliminated entirely.

“It is a devastating cut to all of higher education,” said President Kathleen Burke-Kelly. “It’ll mean more students for us – but we can’t accommodate them.

“As we always do, we’ll respond by doing more with less, but there is a limit. None of us goes into this business to turn students away.”

At Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar, administrators considered a 10 percent cut of $2.6 million at a time when the college was preparing to open new culinary and media arts centers.

“The tragedy for this, at Mission College specifically, unlike the other eight colleges (within the LACCD), is we have been struggling for so long with new buildings, no programs,” said President Judith Valles. “And we’re excited about that, at a time when we can’t offer as many classes as we’d like.”